


oh ye of everlasting constancy

by chrysalizzm



Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Fluff, Gen, natsume week 2019, space imagery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-05-31 15:08:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19428505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chrysalizzm/pseuds/chrysalizzm
Summary: takashi, in all his years, has never felt likeforeveruntil now.natsume week 2019.





	1. 1. in a blaze of color

“you want to _what?”_ cry satoru and tooru together. they’ve adopted the same posture: hands on the backs of their chairs, leaning forward so that all the weight is to the rear legs, eyes wide and eager. 

takashi ducks his head, burying it under both his hands for good measure. “i don’t want anything loud!” he protests feebly through his arms. “just… different.”

atsushi is blinking innocently at him from his desk, his head propped up in one hand. “wow, natsume, how scandalous,” he says, completely straight-faced, tapping out a rhythm with his unoccupied fingers. “what was that? you said you wanted really tacky colors? oh, green and neon orange, huh?” 

takashi makes a sound similar to that of a rubber chicken that was stomped on. 

kaname takes pity and swoops in, burying his fingers in takashi’s tangle of hair fondly. “we’re just teasing, natsume. if that’s what you want, then that’s what you want.”

satoru drags his entire desk with him to sit closer to takashi, angling his face down to make proper eye contact. “i think it’s a great idea. and it sounds fun! maybe i’ll do mine too.”

“seriously though,” interjects atsushi, raising an eyebrow once takashi looks over at him and isn’t attempting to smother himself with his limbs, “what brought this on? we all know you’re not one for vanity, and being super flashy isn’t your favorite thing in the world. not that being super flashy is bad,” he quickly adds on. “we fully support you about this.”

“you sound so nervous, atchan. it’s like you’re giving him life-changing advice,” snorts satoru, and claps a firm hand onto takashi’s free shoulder (the other is taken by kaname, who has absolutely no plans to leave). “look, natsume, it’s not like it’s permanent. and the people in this town aren’t cruel; they’ll love it as much as we love it.”

tooru brings her chair closer as well, her and satoru and takashi fighting for elbow room on the cramped tabletop, and says brightly, “nishimura-kun’s right. we’re a hundred percent behind you, natsume-kun.”

kaname pats takashi’s shoulder, smile warm. “do whatever you want for this. honestly, we’d support you even if it looked awful.”

tooru looks scandalized. “tanuma-kun!” she admonishes, swiping at his arm. satoru only stops laughing long enough to scrub the tears from his eyes and gasp, “he’s not wrong,” and tooru says primly, “oh, it’s true, but he certainly shouldn’t say it like that.”

takashi glows a little brighter in the shower of support from his best friends - he sits up straighter, his gaze starry and hopeful. he fingers a lock of his long, silver bangs that are starting to poke into his vision, and says shyly, “i was thinking of a sort of ash brown…”


	2. 2. baby steps

on takashi’s eighteenth birthday, the dog’s circle drags him up a cliff, already merrily drunk on ancient sake even though takashi can count the sunbeams dancing between his long strides.

“this better not be dangerous,” he calls after the dancing youkai, his voice half warning and half wary. it belies the thread of delight on his face, the warm glow that isn’t all the ribbons of waning sun. he has tanuma’s long calloused fingers grasped in one hand and touko-san’s work-roughened, slender ones in the other, tugging them along gently after him. pulling up the rear comes taki and sasada, both looking chagrined, both wearing long heavy skirts patterned with faded rosettes that threaten to catch on every ragged rock on the overgrown path; nyanko-sensei, trotting at their heels, gruffly correcting their footholds every few seconds; nishimura and kitamoto, arms linked, vaguely resembling marshmallows, encased in their puffy winter coats, the only indication of them being human the cotton-candy wisps of dragon’s breath snaking out of their hoods; natori and hiiragi shuffling after them, the former with an easy smile on his carelessly handsome face; shigeru-san, impossible fondness in every line of his expression, rubbing his gloved hands together to generate a semblance of heat even as his eyes are meltingly tender.

the one-eyed chukyuu turns and hollers back cheerily, “it is completely safe, natsume-sama! we would never put you or your friends in danger!” his oxlike friend twirls beside him. hinoe’s shoulders shake as she presses her pipe forcefully to her lips to hide her giggles. natori covers his mouth with his knuckles and pretends like he isn’t laughing. 

“when do we get there?” demands nyanko-sensei crankily, forgoing playing tour guide for taki and sasada in favor of scratching at everyone’s ankles to see if he can get a free ride. nobody makes a move to scoop him up, and he falls back in, miffed. 

“not very far now, madara-sama,” responds misuzu with an air of infinite patience.

takashi huffs through his woollen scarves (plural, because touko-san refused to let him leave until he was sweating under the mummification process she’d put him through) and says, “well, i…”

he trails off as the chukyuu wave him forward to the edge of the cliff, where a ghostly cyan glow rises below the chasms. takashi swallows hard past the lump in his throat as he disentangles his hands and crouches forward on all fours carefully to get a better look. 

it’s _beautiful._

even that’s not a good enough word to encompass the grand lake frozen over into an otherworldly ice rink. under the slow-rippling shimmers of the sluggish water is - a sky, not quite day but not quite night, drenched, saturated, alight with stars. powdery gold drifts through the wind from the luminescent herbs blooming at the ice’s edge, not unlike bluebells made of fairy lights. the lake feels like it’s gazing up and out, a desperately endlessly indigo and ultramarine, swirled with strips of silver crystal, with shards of moons born and lost, with streaking hints at supernovas dribbled over it all. it’s absolutely breathtaking, takashi thinks he might faint from the all-encompassing-ness of the frozen lake - the omnipresence of it, as though looking into it is _everything_ and yet _not quite all of it._

it smells like the vastness of space. it smells like enchantment. 

“natsu - oh,” gasps tanuma in the same breath, crouching beside takashi, gazing into the lake, his dark eyes shining with what could almost be adoration, what might be respect. “oh, _wow.”_

the others, one by one, pick their way to a point where he beautiful spectacle is visible, and for several moment sound is suspended. there is only starlight, the looping tails of comets like cursive in the sky in the water, transcendent blossoms of radiance in violets and cobalts, golds and shining silvers, a myriad of color in the small galaxy of their own. 

“oh, takashi-kun,” breathes touko-san finally, wrapping her arms around takashi’s narrow shoulders. “it’s lovely. i’m so glad you brought us up here despite the cold.”

“i’m warmed up just looking at that lake,” adds natori glibly, then winks at satoru, who’s raising an incredulous eyebrow. 

takashi’s still drinking it in. he can’t tear his eyes away, and it’s not just the lake, as wonderful as it is - it’s the people he got to bring with him. it’s tanuma pulling his wind-wild hair into a tail to see more clearly. it’s taki with the youkai circle printed neatly on her palms, pressing her hands to her temples and eyes growing round at the light. it’s sasada shifting her skirt beneath her legs, grinning wide, having anticipated a long stay and passing out paper cups, pouring lukewarm hot chocolate into them from a thermos. it’s nishimura’s purse-lipped whistle when he sees the lake, forming binoculars with his hands and hooting. it’s kitamoto grabbing nishimura by the scruff of his jacket and walking him a safe distance away from falling danger. it’s natori and hiiragi, spreading picnic blankets, weighing them down with natori’s hiking pack. it’s touko-san, it’s shigeru-san, it’s a parent’s hand warming the nape of his neck as they lean down and whisper kindly, “happy birthday, takashi-kun.”

takashi almost cries from the enormity of it all. him, the stars, the moons, and his love, all of it nearly to great to bear. 

“thank you, touko-san, shigeru-san.”

he bridges the gap one step at a time. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wrote this in the middle of the night so i haven’t proofread it but!! i hope it’s alright!!! i love and appreciate you takashi

**Author's Note:**

> it’s natsuyuu week 2019. behold my attempts to reconcile takashi’s hair in the manga and his hair in the anime because my favorite color is silver but it feels like natsume would have tried harder than anything not to stick out and now i’ve made myself sad. damn it


End file.
